Hey guys and gals! Welcome to another week of Sam and Dan Games. This week we have some sneak peak at the Creature Universe Starters and the weekly progress for what will be new in Pokemon Tower Defense 2 this week. Enjoy!

Creature Universe (aka ANPO) Starters:
Okay so every creature game should start with the trainers getting their first creature. In pokemon you started in one town and you picked from three different starters. In most games in the series you could pick from a grass, fire or water pokemon. My first thoughts in designing ANPO were "okay why not have different types available? Why not have all types available?" I thought it would be great if you wanted a specific type to be your starting type. Why only have 3 choices? Then I said "wouldn't it be cool if each starter had a different starting location?" What if since each city specializes in a certain type why not have a starter on each city and have players decide which city they wanted to start from. That all sounded great! But then I came back to earth and thought about how many different types we might have and about how long it would take to make all those cities right from the start. Okay so I like the idea of different cities for each starter. I like the idea of letting you choose which type you want to start. But to release the game I have to limit how many starters I will release the game with. So let's go back down to 3 and then as the game progresses we will add more. Okay so 3 starter types for 3 cities. The starters will be like that cities mascot. They will be an important part of that city. That is the creature that young trainers from that city receive when they first start training.

Now which 3 types should it start with? My first thoughts were to not do fire, grass, and water. Let's make it different! WOOOO! How about flying, ground, electric? Hmm it doesn't quite work out... Flying isn't super effective against ground... Also it's not that intuitive to figure out who beats who... not as nice as fire, grass, and water. So I decided okay I want more than 3 types for starters but if I only have 3 types then they will be fire, grass, and water. So a few weeks back I had my artist, Kevin, Bill, Evan, Josh and Joel, start coming up with concepts for creatures for ANPO. We have over 100 designs already! But I like to present to you the work in progress sketches of the water, fire, and grass starters for ANPO!

Work In Progress ANPO Starters

Weekly Progress:
This week for PTD 2 will we have another 1v1 level, this level should be enough for kakuna and metapod to level up to 10 so I will include the unlocks for those. Also I'll be pushing for saving in the story mode and the second quest where you can actually pick your starter. Plus if I have time during the week I'll add any small fixes or changes that I find.

Alpha v1.14 Added the Girl Avatar for story mode, saving for story mode, Bug Fixes and Changes (9/2/12): Released!

Fixed a bug that was making attacks that should do at least 1 damage do 0 damage - Like Poison Sting on Geodude

Fixed a bug that prevented a pokemon from learning an attack when it evolves and you beat a level

Fixed a bug with attacks with an initial cooldown having a cooldown glitch

Removed Prof Oak's winning text and added different text in Story Level 1

Added Johto Starter sounds to the Story Level 1 Intro

Added the correct lost popup to Story Level 1

Implemented the girl avatar in story mode

Fixed being able to enter houses through windows and walls in Story mode

Lowered the Geodude's level in Level 6 of 1v1 to 10, 11, 12
respectively, also lowered the amount of buffs they do before attacking

Gave Professor Oak the correct questions to ask the player on Story Level 1 Intro

Fixed a bug with beating a level while playing at a higher speed

Added properly deleting profiles when the delete button is pressed

Added saving your story profile

Alpha v1.13 New Level, Bug Fixes and Changes (8/28/12): Released!

1v1 Level 6

Intro

Level Layout

Waves

Ending

Added Butterfree and Beedrill as unlockables

Lower the effect of speed changes to attack speed

Update speed changes to attack cooldown in real time instead of only when a new move is going to be done

That's all I have for you this week, keep checking back to see how I am progressing on the update, and let me know what you think of the starters and the weekly progress in the comments below or on twitter.
Thanks!

I can't wait to finally be able to evolve kakuna and metapod! Everything looks like it's coming along at a great clip! I wish that everything could be released even faster, but I know it just doesn't work that way. Still, I will continue wishing you the best of luck in all of your projects, although I personally only plan to closely follow the PTD2 updates. Thanks again Sam for providing us wish such an incredible free online game.

So will anpo have a similar creature types as the Pokemon series? I'd also like to see some original types such as shadow like you had in PTD 1. Also in 1 v 1 will there ever be checkpoints so we don't have to do the first few levels? Of course only once there are enough levels to require checkpoints

Love your work, I just hope you can really make ANPO stand out from Pokemon so that it doesn't get overlooked as a Pokemon clone. Throw in as many original ideas as you can, make it your own creation. I'd love to see some fresh ideas in a creatures game, so that it's not just all about collecting/battling. It would be really nice if you could play as the monster characters outside of battle even if it has to be restricted to simple minigames and such. Maybe you could use a flying creature to navigate a moutainous region to find a path that your human character could take or just to find a hidden item that the creature could bring back to you. Maybe we could play as a water type creature while swimming under water or on top of it and the mechanics would be different then just walking. I'm sure you're thinking of all these things. I just can't wait to see more. :)

I personally think that Rock, Flying, Fighting would work better (assuming the same type weaknesses and advantages as Pokemon) because Steel isn't super effective against flying. I like the idea, though.

It seems like it could be an interesting game, but although I've seen how dedicated and creative you were throughout PTD1, it seems to me that it would be more difficult to follow the creation of a new world step by step. I think I would prefer to start playing that game when it is closer to completion because I wouldn't be looking forward to every new level like I will in PTD2 (and how I did for PTD1 since the second gym). If I started playing ANPO from a near completed state, I feel that I would be able to take the game in as a whole once most of the wrinkles have been sorted out already. With PTD2, I can tell if something doesn't feel right control-wise or gameplay-wise, but ANPO would be much more at your own discretion, so I would rather see what you choose to do with it than give too much of my own input on the actual game development. I hope that I explained myself well; I don't want to sound disrespectful, and hopefully I might even be able to provide you with a little additional insight from one of your dedicated fans.

The Character Concepts look good, but i have to say, I'm quite dissappointed with the starters element. This makes ANPO look so much like a cheep Pokemon ripoff. And i really hope it will make some stuff different, so it isnt just another pokemon clone with different creatures.

Hey Sam. I love your ideas and they just keep getting better over time! With PTD2 will you put in a talking system (for example 'spacebar' to talk to a sign)? Because I think that would make roaming alot wider and really cool. Thankyou! You have mad a mad game and will be remebered!!!

Props to whoever did the creature designs; vaguely familiar but still unique. I foresee the grass chameleon not getting much love since he clashes so much with the Poké-esk water and fire starters plus that it reminds people too much of Treeko. Not that I have a problem with it, I wouldn't have a problem with either style.

Also if the fire starter is not named Coalala (Coal + Koala), heads will roll. >:)

Flying isn't very effective against Rock, either. I think the Rock-Flying-Fighting trio also works well because all three types do neutral damage against themselves, where Steel is weak against itself.

Why don't you really Change it up, use something like Volcanic(Earth and Fire), Storm(Wind and Lightning), Glacial(Water and Ice) and Solar(Light and Shadow), that way you only need Four Cities that specialize it 2 different types and then you can have 8 starters

Frankly, I'm more of a fan for this one, for it seems a tad more original, similar to the concept. Also, not to be rude, but in your post, you stated that "Also it's not that intuitive to figure out who beats who... not as nice as fire, grass, and water," when there is in fact different combinations that would work as well as , such as . All of these ideas coming from your fans, including me, would make ANPO seem a tad more original than the classic Pokemon. I do hope that this will be taken under your consideration, though since you already had these creatures made, I highly doubt you'll change it. This is not the problem since I am in love with the artwork, especially the Water Buffalo-like creature.

can you call the types elements or something differnt? because it's to pokemonish if you know what i mean, and change the elements (types) names? like fighting type into marshal arts element and steel type into iron element, water into aqua element , fire type into volcanic element, grass into nature element , ghost into spirit,ect and add new elements like yin and yang , and space and dino not my best but you get my point! right? p.s. i have no idea to the psychic name change! p.s. again cool creatures! is it possible to send our ideas of creatures in?

My Tips.1. Fire,Water and Grass makes me think Pokemon RIP. Anything is better.2. Make the starters captureable. This is so annoying in Pokemon and ANPO won't improve the idea. I am sure here.3. Have a Pokedex-like thing with tons of info. I love reading it. Perhaps even secret pages that require you to do extra stuff and not just capturing.4. Keep going for all types. Really improves what will come when it comes.5. NO POINTLESS GRINDING!That's it for now.

I think fighting dark psychic would work better so dark doesn't have a distinct advantage. You could have a question at the beginning and ask if they prefer outsmarting opponents, using cheap shots on them, or overpowering them. Then you plop them in the city that has the corresponding starter as its mascot. P.S. if you are adding types, you should have a robot, angel, and alien types

I was thinking, why don't you go Psychic-Fighting-Dark? I'd love to see that type trio; I'd love what you could do. If I had to pick which would be which, I'd make a Psychic buffalo-thing (It's creative! :P) a Fighting panda-thing (Pandas are cool like that, ya know?) and the Dark Chameleon/Lizard thing (They're like ninjas xD)

Or you could go with a Poison-Dark-Psychic with a Poison buffalo (Add a stinger for extra Awesome points xD) and the Dark/Psychic as I said above.

Alternatively, you could go for an Ice/Flying/Fighting style... but none of them look like flyers to me, ya know? If that would go, I'd like the Ice buffalo, the Fighting panda... and throw some wings on the lizard? Who knows, I guess...

Anyway, just figured I'd throw some stuff out there, probably people have already said all of these, but I was too lazy to look through and see what people have said xD

Sam. Haven't u though working with the gamefreak pokemon design team??? I make u this question because i see that in all editions after the 3rd, the pokemon design is getting worse; and it seems you've great ideas to design imaginary creatures (u've done a great work with these 3 ANPO starters; congratulations Sam & Kevin!!!)

Other people already sugested the Psychic-Fighting-Dark (though not especificating the starters). But I like the idea of puting wings on the lizard. It would turn it into a wyvern (maybe it could be the evolution : ).

Though all the type ideas are cool (especially using the 4 elements with their fusions), I don't think Sam will have the time to change it all. The basic three are the easiest, though maybe not the best choice.

Even if the koala isn't the coolest, I will stick with fire type starters. No matter how dorky the first stage is, I know Sam and the design team will create an amazing evolution chain. He could end up having an epic, fire/dark type, flaming ninja-panda. Whatever it is, I can't wait for you all to see why you should have pledged your loyalty to fire types.

We definitely have a lot of unique ideas for it. Even PTD 1 is very different from pokemon. PTD2 is even more different in a lot of ways. So ANPO with just about new everything will stand on its own. But obviously it is inspired by pokemon so there will be similarities.

I'm concentration on PTD2, but my artist (which don't work on ptd at all, never have) are doing work for anpo.Also ANPO uses the same engine as PTD2 so in a way I'm working on both at the same time. Nothing to worry about :)

You should release 2-3 new ANPO creatures a week along with basic information (type, name, ect.) That would be really cool and, when you get ready to add the next few cities, bring the prereleased creatures up and say 'Which should be the ~~~ type city's mascot?' or 'Which of these creatures' cities do you want to see first?' in a survey. Give me support, my fellow fans!!!

sorry that my comment came off so negative. I really am looking forward to ANPO. It's just that there already are quite a few browserbased pokemon-clones out already and i am scared that ANPO will vanish in that mass. I hope that ANPO has some features that will make it stand out on its own. You absolutely have the potential to do something awesome and original here!

sorry sam and dan im no longer playing this game.. why well i dont cheat but these levels are stupidly difficult and iv spent up to 3 days straight on cinnibar island and 2 days one cinnibar gym i like a challenge but thats beyond fun sorry good game just too hard. cheers

I've noticed a couple glitches in this new build. Some you may already know of, but these are just the ones that I found.1) leveling geodude to level 8 on the last pokemon of the 5th 1v1 level, the level ends without geodude learning rock polish2) leveling kakuna to level 10 on the latest level after killing the first geodude, it doesn't evolve. Finding this bummed me out, cause I wanted to unlock beedril :(3) I've been having recurring problems with the cooldown bars. When a level starts, they will sometimes extend far beyond the pokemons box, going out into the rest of the game. The extra length does indeed add extra time to wait until a move is ready too.

I also have some suggestions to add for the 'start battle' screen of 1v1 to help us keep track of where we are.1) what level we are about to start2) how many potions we currently have3) experience bars when we check a pokemon

I sent you a couple tweets about some of these, but I decided to put all my ideas together in one list so I guess you can just ignore those if you reply to this.

One comment as you start PTD 2 story--one of the problems with PTD that arose because you released it level by level was that people had lots of time to grind between releases, and often did so because they had time and loved the game, which meant that to give them a challenge you had to make a decent challenge. The problem is that for people starting new games, this is much harder, because then they are faced with the prospect of lots of grinding. A game where little to no grinding is required except in place of good strategy would be much better. I know this is difficult because of how you release the game, but I've tried starting new games in PTD and it's just not that fun once I get to around Saffron City because I am simply underleveled and don't want to spend hours leveling.

ithink you should start with just creating different animals, then change there colour and say that the red/orange one is a fire type (like you did with the koala, lizard and...what i'm guessing is a cow)

Im not so sure about the new idea for story mode, moving around like in original games. It would be cool to do so, but that would mean it takes much longer to make one level, because of interactions, movement, NPCs, and so forth. I understand a lot of people want that, but is it really a good choice, as there will be more time between updates?

Yes, they're both now possible to obtain. The easiest way to ensure that metapod or kakuna get the maximum possible xp is to sacrifice any other pokemon the battled an opponent, leaving the opponent with little health and/or lowered stats. That way, the pokemon that you're trying to evolve gets the most possible xp.

Sorry no one had beat level 6 because sam doesnt relize that 3 geodudes level 13 with crazy good speed attack defense is impossible. JUST MAKE ONE!!! And i traines my metapod to level 9 on the last level but the geodudes barley gives you EXP!!!

Thanks for the info.1. I'll have to check this out cause I just evolved him to 8 when finishing a level and it worked fine.2. Same thing here.3. This will be fixed on the next build. I already fixed it but I have to upload it.

I'm adding a screen that you can see who you are fighting next.Inventory buttons sounds pretty good.I'll add the experience bar, I think I took it off by mistake.

This is definately true. I started a new game in PDT and it was awful because it's just so boring now. I remember when the level cap was 10 :') and i found it on my phone and i did play quite a lot each week... now its terribly boring.

Also, is your reason for ANPO so it can be released on android?? (please say yes, your last game went straight to the top of the android free games so this should definitely be released for phones)

Well, Why not do Psychic, Fighting, Dark? Correct me if I'm wrong but dark is weak to fighting, fighting is weak to psychic and psychic is weak to dark. Onces again I could be wrong but reply Sam if you think it a legit idea or someone that agrees.

hey sam could you let us send in our own ideas for creatures for anpo (to make it stand out because pokemon does not let us ( theres a lot of pokemon ideas on youtube but pokemon does not use it (i don't know what anpo stands for))) just a sugestion any ways great job on anpo and i got ideas for types i hope you what to read them good luck on anpo can't wait for both ptd2 and anpo! good luck agian!

I see that you are planning on making the 6th level a bit easier. To be honest, I rather liked the challenge, so may I propose various difficulties of 1 vs 1 available (probably in the more distantish future), because the three-geodude fight is definitely challenging, but in a good way. Having multiple difficulties rather than trying to be completely middle-of-the-road is a great way to appeal to a larger group of gamers, satisfying both those that want the challenge and those that just want novelty mixed with nostalgia.

Assuming you already have kakuna/metapod, you need to ensure that whichever pokemon you're using gains as much xp as possible. What this means is that if you cannot defeat an opposing pokemon with kakuna, for example, you need to send out another pokemon to weaken it and the sacrifice it. For example, on level 2, your kakuna can likely defeat weedle and kakuna. However, you could send out a spearow to first lower beedrill's health, then use leer and growl until it's -6 in both stats. Now wait for beedrill to knock out the spearow that way your kakuna can get all the xp. With this strategy, you can evolve you kakuna into a beedrill getting all of the xp through level 5 and splitting the xp from the first geodude of round 6. A similar stragedy works for metapod, too.

I would call using potions grinding, but I think having the right pokemon is not hard in a bad way, and especially with the limited pokemon we have, choosing the right pokemon is a good challenge. In fact, it's similar to a challenge that has often been implemented in the Pokemon Stadium games, that is, the rental pokemon challenge, where you are given a set of pokemon to choose from and have to select the best ones based on both stats and moves and how they complement each other.

sam metapod was easy to evolve into butterfree but since poison types have no effect on rock types, its almost impossible to evolve kakuna into beedrill. ive tried many times and i still go the same outcome needing only atleast a smallest bit of exp. im asking if you could increase the exp count per enemy or minimize the exp need to level up a pokemon. both of these would also make it easy for beginners to start off with. just some suggestions.

its not difficult at all. especially if you already got butterfree. Use it to single beat the lvls...doesnt matter if you beat number 6 you still earn cash every try. Keep doing it till u have like 160 Coins. Than buy 1 Kakuna, 3 Pidgeys, 1 spearow and 1 Butterfree. and get potions for the rest. Now the first 2 lvls should be easy-pie. Everytime you can try to spam sand attack and nearly kill the tough pokemons like beedrill, nidorans or pickachus. Spam potions if needed. At lvl 6, (your Kakuna should be close to lvl up now) use Kakuna and use Stringshot once on Geodude. After that, kill it with butterfree. Repeat with geodude #2 and your Kakuna should evolve after Geodude #2. Buy new potions every round and dont be to greedy with it.

use geodude and pidgey and 2 potions. Only use pidgey to keep away accuracylowering effects from geodude. than use geodude to kill the first NPC-Geodude (should work well.) switch to pidgey and spawn sand attack on 2nd geodude. (should hit 3-4 times) than it gets one-hit-ko. Use geodude again to kill it (you will have to use one potion.) Defeat 3rd geodude (will use the last potion).

you know what will be cool for ptd3 or 4 (if there is one) would be drum role please durdur!dur!!dur!!!dur!!!! crash! pokemon apocalypse! where human decides that the do not need them any more and expiriment on them. well thats for the future but, what i relly what to say is.......................why does the mom on pokemon have a room?

I definitely agree with Jordan. I thought it was a good amount of challenge and I enjoyed trying out different pokemon and strategies to figure out what worked. I'm fine with it, but if you're going to make a lvl 7 I would want it to be more challenging. and btw thanks so much for doing this project this game is amazing

I'm sure sacrificing would work, but what I did was sent out geodude(defense curl) initially to take all the stat lowering effects cuz those really hurt in the long run. And then switched to metapod/kakuna to do the killing. The exp isn't split since geodude didn't hit the other pkmn. I did have to use quite a few potions though.

get 250-300 coinsbuy metapod 2 pidgeys 2 rattatas and one pikachuspend the rest on potionssacrifice so that metapod gets all the exp, using potions when necessary he should evolve on the first or second geodude in lvl 6

Do the types in ANPO absolutely need to be the same types in Pokemon? Are you trying to make a game that's like, a Pokemon MMO, but not Pokemon? IN that case why not just make it a Pokemon MMO? If you're trying to make something that's your own intellectual property, why does it need to copy the same exact types? Why NOT make flying super effective against ground in this one, for instance? Why do your starter designs scream "POKEMON CLONE" from the top of the Empire State Building with seventeen loudspeakers? I think you should go back to your initial thoughts and make it different types so people don't think they're just playing a pokemon clone. Well okay, AS MUCH of a pokemon clone. Why even have three? Why not have four or five? or even just two types to start with, and two cities? There's lots of other things you can do to make it a creature collecting/battling MMO (which is a cool idea btw) but not make it just Pokemon in a slightly different game genre.

I think one reason he is using the same types and not changing the effectiveness of each type is so that people don't have to learn all new type match ups. Do you really want to have to take the time to think if a type is supereffective or not each time you play pokemon or anpo?

So aliens and zombies? It's still going to be creatures based on animals, it's still going to be types that counter each other. Calling it volcanic instead of fire doesn't really change it. Some type advantages and disadvantages will change I just haven't talked about that. Also I said that I will have more than 3 starters, eventually. I'm not trying to be offensive but you sound like many people that just want to make things different for the sake of making things different instead of having a good reason behind it. Understanding the reasons why pokemon is the way it is (it's not random) helps you understand why they did it, and once you fully understand can you decide if changing it will result in something better. If changing it makes it worse then it is a bad change. Sorry for the long post but I get these types of comments a lot and people sometimes don't understand and they just feel like well just change it when in reality (for somebody who cares) it is not that easy. Anyways thanks for the feedback :)

You should make achievements for 1v1. This way we have more things to shoot for. Some good ones for now would be beating the first five levels using less than 50 coins or beating level(stage) 4 using only lvl. 5 pokemon. It would be so much more fun to play if every five levels you added 1 or 2 achievements.